VANDERWAALS THEORY OF 2-COMPONENT MELTING

A van der Waals model based on accurate free energies for solid and liquid hard-sphere two-component mixtures is described. The model is computationally simple, it readily describes the variety of solid-liquid phase diagrams observed in metallic, ionic, and molecular systems, and in addition it permits the study of phase diagrams as a function of pressure. Several well-known empirical regularities in two-component phase diagrams are found to be predicted by the model calculations. Quantitative comparison of theory and experiment for metallic mixtures shows good agreement.